Recession drives more Japanese businessmen to suicide...

As Japanese businessmen endure a bleak year the people who live near the most infamous suicide spot in the country are seeing an upturn in the number of people entering Aokigahara Forest.

The first indications of a life that has been lost appear within a hundred yards of entering the forest. Scattered across mossy tree roots are a man's shirt, boxer shorts and trousers. Amid the clothes are a bottle of sake and another of Korean liquor, as well as empty packets of prescription pills.

The name is clearly legible on the envelope that the Japanese pharmacist would have handed over, unaware that the tablets were going to be used to help end a life rather than cure an illness. More...

See also:

1. Mass farmer suicides in India as crops fail...
2. China: a suicide every 2 minutes...
3. Singapore: zoo cleaner commits suicide ... by offering himself to tigers.
4. 32,000 people in Japan committed suicide last year...